Have you ever thought, “There are so many things to do to market my book, and I’m not sure where to start or when to do them?” If so, you may be so overwhelmed that you don’t do anything.

You can avoid this analysis paralysis and keep yourself moving productively toward the attainment of your goals. Creating a business plan is the best way to begin. But this can be a daunting task, one easy to put off. That can perpetuate one’s sense of futility and actually encourage procrastination.

Instead, try this simple technique. Make a list of all the things you have to do, organized in categories of similar actions, put a deadline on each, and start doing them one at a time. Use your pub date as the ending point, then work back to the present day. Here is a list of some actions to take – by no means exhaustive -- organized into five phases, and the approximate time it should be started so you reach your pub date, ready to sell.

EBooks are everywhere these days. In fact, they’re so prevalent, it’s often easy to forget the “other” way to read books – by listening to them. Audio book lovers are passionate about their books. When you talk with them, you’ll probably hear that most can’t recall the last time they actually read a book word for word. In fact, some people listen to as many as five audio books each month – this is particularly common in people who spend long periods of time on the road, like over-the-road truck drivers. And you’ll also find that audio book lovers have a wide variety of tastes, listening to anything from world history to self-help and fiction.

Do you feel like your book is getting lost in the millions of titles currently for sale on Amazon? There’s a lot of competition for readers’ attention and that will only get more difficult as more authors embrace the freedom of self-publishing.

Did you know that you can use certain keywords in order to get your book listed in secret sub-genres that you can’t get from the regular list on the Amazon KDP dashboard?

Amazon doesn’t offer every existing category when it's time to publish your book.

When you write a book, you want to get it into as many hands as possible. Technological innovations make it possible to reach more than just hands by enabling you to produce audible books and accessible, portable content for a variety of mobile devices. More than ever, readers demand a high-quality user experience with content, and, through social networking vehicles, they have more ways to complain or share with others when it doesn’t go so well.

In a 2015 survey covering trends in digital publishing, conducted by Bowker and Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), 72% of respondents indicated that they currently publish digital content and 79% plan to in the future. Whether you author non-fiction, fiction or technical material, you can leverage opportunities to distribute digital books via your own website, Amazon, Apple, and other ebook distributor sites.

You’ve done it—you’ve written a book. Chances are that you understand the process for getting the book to readers to enjoy in a print version, but then you’re met with questions such as, “When will this be available for my Kindle, iPad, or smart phone?”

If the world of publishing content for mobile audiences is new to you, you need to consider a few things before starting the process. If you’re self-publishing, you assume all of the cost and effort, and need to know what challenges exist to get your book findable and readable to meet varying audience requests (and sometimes, demands). If you choose to work with a publisher, you need to meet a high standard of quality with the delivery of your book to all formats. Let’s take a look at some of the common considerations you’ll need to make when you transform your books into mobile-ready content.

The SBA defines a small business as an enterprise having fewer than 500 employees. There are almost 28 million small businesses in the US and over 22 million are self-employed with no additional payroll or employees (these are called non-employers).

Did you know that by publishing your book, you are starting a small business as an author? It seems strange to many authors, but the changes in the publishing industry has made it both easier and harder to become a professional author- also called an authorpreneur. When starting a new business, it's important to know the current state of small business affairs and get a little help along the way.

The journey into authorpreneurship can seem daunting, but here are a few facts about starting a business that may help you along the way:

Getting international sales is always an important part of an author’s campaign but selling overseas can be tricky. The good news is: Amazon is everywhere. The bad news is that most of these author/book pages overseas are blank slates and populating them means either finding reviewers in these countries or finding reviewers who have accounts internationally. For the most part, I’ve only seen Amazon top reviewers have this kind of access. Though technically anyone can review internationally, most don’t.

When you sell a few hundred books to a prospective customer, the decision is usually made quickly, by one or two people. You might close the sale with a handshake and purchase order after a few meetings. But the process changes when you propose the sale of tens of thousands of your books to corporate buyers. These decisions are scrutinized at higher levels since the results can make or break careers.

Typically, large-quantity book sales are rarely made on a unilateral basis. In most cases, the decision authority lies with a committee, the members of which have different roles. These people may be from sales, marketing, purchasing, warehousing, legal and Human Resources. You, as the salesperson for your book, must build consensus among these diverse perspectives to close the sale. How can you do this? Here are a few techniques.

When negotiating a large-quantity order your prospects will expect you to present a proposal. This is your recommendation of how to proceed, your solution to the buyer’s problem. Give them an answer to the unspoken question, “How will your product make a credible improvement over the existing or previous ways in which they have conducted promotional campaigns?” Here are the Top Ten Tips for Creating a Sales Proposal.

1. Give a summary of what you propose, why it will benefit the buyer and how much it will cost – all on one page.

2. An 8 – 15% improvement gets attention. If you predict a result that is too low, they are not interested. If too high, it is not believable. Make a reasonable and doable claim that is backed by credible data. Do not offer a guarantee.

It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You write a great article either on your blog or as a guest post, and one day you find it on someone else’s site with no credit to you whatsoever. In the case of what happened that prompted this piece, an article I wrote was lifted and tinkered with *slightly* and then reposted onto someone else’s site. What do you do if that happens? Well, it’s certainly a hassle but it’s one you should consider following up on because stealing someone else’s work – especially stealing it and repurposing it, is not right and certainly a copyright infringement.